This is not the point I'm trying to make. Startups don't 'choose' the web. They choose whatever exists to make cross-platform apps, because having to develop and maintain 3 separate code bases is not feasible for most bootstrapped startups.
If I just picked iOS and told every one of my app's users that they have to use it, it would be pretty difficult for me to succeed.
Its not that I don't want to learn another language. Its that the time it takes me to maintain 3 separate codebases takes away from my ability to iterate on product features and build stuff that will actually help the people using the app, and ultimately make my company successful.
I'm not trying to argue that it is the BEST user experience. I'm trying to say that it is hurting small dev shops and startups because they are being forced to learn a completely new tech stack in order to play ball. I could have spent that time implementing new features that users would actually use and in turn improve their business, or in this case, reach and help more people with valuable medical advice.
In the end, Apple got what they wanted. I needed a feature that PWA's can give me - but Apple hasn't added support for them in mobile safari, so I paid the $100 to get access to the app store, and was forced to learn a completely different language.
Yes, the end product has an arguably better and 'native-like' experience, but it took me longer to do and it is lacking some of the features that I could have rolled out if I was able to use PWA's. And it would have worked on Android out of the box as well.
I don't regret learning React Native. It was actually really, really fun. The community is great, and being able to write native apps now feels really good.
But its the principal of the matter. Holding back innovation for your company's own selfish reasons is a shitty thing to do.
Telling your users how to add your app to the home screen should not be a thing. It makes your product look unprofessional. Prompting a user who has used the web app a bunch of times should be a thing on iOS like it is on Android.
I'm aware of fastclick.js, and I've been using it. I was just excited to remove an extra dependency when they removed the delay from mobile Safari. Checked it into git, deployed...then realized it was still there in fullscreen mode. My point is that they develop stuff for mobile Safari, but then leave fullscreen mode in the dust.
Greg here, Founder/CEO of BrewLog. I used to work with cody in a previous company.
I wouldn't necessarily describe our product that way. In fact, it was spun out of a 50BBL/yr brewery. A lot of the functionality is most useful to bigger breweries (notifications, activity feed).
The difference with much bigger breweries is that they have automated stuff. We're talking with Semens, and we're working with a few breweries to hook up smart WIFI/Cloud enabled temperature sensors to pull data in.
We've got a lot of smaller breweries in our Beta right now too. We're focusing on making the brew sheet work for all different types of breweries at the moment, as brewing processes can be different for various breweries.
We're about to launch a bunch of other neat stuff, like yeast management and tasting.
But yeah, if you've got a commercial brewery, we'd love to talk to you! Get in touch with me at [email protected].
If I just picked iOS and told every one of my app's users that they have to use it, it would be pretty difficult for me to succeed.
Its not that I don't want to learn another language. Its that the time it takes me to maintain 3 separate codebases takes away from my ability to iterate on product features and build stuff that will actually help the people using the app, and ultimately make my company successful.